


The Truth

by Sira_original (Sira)



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Halloween, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 05:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8434084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sira/pseuds/Sira_original
Summary: Caroline and Kathryn used to be a couple, but it all changed when Kathryn simply disappeared for hours the night Caroline's brother died. Now Caroline will finally learn why?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story two years ago when I read a prompt for a Halloween f/f story contest. Of course I didn't finish the story. I finished it today and decided to post it just because...
> 
> Oh, and this time... these characters belong to me. Yay. :)

„Once upon a time, there was a haunted house.”

Caroline waited for Kathryn to continue the story, but her ex-girlfriend only threw her a look over her shoulder, a half-smile that didn't reach her eyes on her face.

“And then?” Caroline finally asked. “A group of teenagers decided to go to that very place to proof how brave they were only to end up dead one after the other?”

Kathryn laughed out. 

“That would be too easy, wouldn’t it? Never mind, following your train of thought, you forgot the part where the true hero of the story fights the evil within the house and subsequently wins. You need a survivor to make the sequel more marketable.”

Caroline stopped in the middle of the street, ignoring the way the cold seemed to seep into her very bones. Fog was rolling in from the ocean, so you couldn’t see more than a few yards ahead, the streets lamps offering only a minimum of lighting. She heard laughter and squealing in the distance; surely some kids still out tricking or treating.

Kathryn slowed down, looked over her shoulder.

“Are you coming?”

“Only if you tell me why you all but dragged me out of the house in what is almost the middle of the night, and why you're beginning with telling strange stories you don’t intend to finish. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s…,” she trailed off.

It was hard to tell but she was sure it was amusement she saw in Kathryn’s eyes.

“You think it’s scary?”

“Why would I? But for the love of whatever is holy or not, could you please finally answer a question for a change?”

Kathryn walked back to her, put her hands on Caroline’s shoulder, the look in her eyes soft.

“Because you needed to get out. You’ve been holed up in your house for weeks, or rather months now.”

“So you thought a sunny walk on the beach would do the trick? Well, the sun ain’t shining, I’d say.”

She didn’t mean to lash out, knew Kathryn meant well. 

A dog barked in the distance, then howled, the sound sending a shiver down Caroline’s back. Kathryn’s hands still rested on her shoulders, and it would be way too easy to close the distance between them, to seek comfort she was sure wouldn't be denied.

The thought held too much appeal, so she stepped back.

“You don’t need sunshine, you need to deal. Or rather to accept you can’t change the past,” Kathryn said.

Kathryn was right. Caroline wasn’t ready yet, though, wasn’t sure she’d ever be. Her hands balled into fists in the pockets of her coat while she had to battle the urge to cry. She hated to cry, to show weakness.

Even in the dim lighting, Kathryn’s blue eyes still seemed bright. It hadn’t been too long Caroline had felt she could lose herself in the sometimes gentle, sometimes heated gaze of her former lover. She wondered if Kathryn was still feeling the pain of their separation. Caroline knew she did.

She spoke out to stop her train of thought.

“ Are we going to raid the next best supermarket, grab a costume and go trick or treating now? Or how about a party with plenty of booze? And what about the story you started…”

“No, we’re going to the cemetery,” Kathryn cut her short.

Kathryn had to be kidding. Caroline shook her head, turned and walked back towards her house.

“No. Just no. What kind of sick game…”

Kathryn’s hand, stronger than it should be for a woman of slender built and average height, grabbed her elbow.

“It’s not a game. I finally want you to know the truth.”

Caroline froze, yet she refused to turn around.

“The truth about what?”

“The truth about the night Michael died.”

Caroline took a deep breath, swallowed the bile that wanted to rise up in her throat. She removed Kathryn's hand with one of her own.

She turned to meet Kathryn’s gaze.

“Which truth?” she said.

“Come on, I’ll explain. I don’t want to freeze to death here. Please, Caro.”

It were the last two words, spoken in almost a whisper that did it. They were connected to so many memories of a past she still had felt happy. Unable to speak, she nodded once before she turned around.

“Thank you.”

Kathryn began to move again and Caroline followed slowly, remaining a step behind her friend. She didn’t want to truly face her while she felt her emotions could swallow her whole. 

Some strands of her hair were clinging to her cheeks, and it annoyed her enough so she pulled off her beanie, tried to shove them back underneath. She really needed to have it cut it to a more manageable length soon. Maybe she should add some blonde streaks as highlights.

“Don’t. Please.”

“Don't what?”

“Don’t withdraw again,” Kathryn said. 

Whenever fate lashed out Kathryn would meet it head’s on. Caroline instead liked to withdraw herself from everything and everyone. As a freelance editor she could hide inside her house for weeks if she wanted to, had done so often enough in the past. 

In part it was that difference in personalities that had led to their separation about five months ago. It had never been about a lack of love but the inability to deal with each other

“Booh,” someone shouted from a few houses away, then there was laughter and the sound of shoes on asphalt, running away.

“What kind of parents let their kids roam the streets on Halloween around eleven p.m?”

“Who cares?” Kathryn said. “Caro, please, don’t shut me out. Yell at me, hit me, but please don’t shut me out.”

“I don’t mean to.”

But no one could break a lifelong habit in the blink of seconds, not even within months.

“So tell me what’s on your mind,” Kathryn said.

They rounded the corner that would lead them past the harbor to the town's old cemetery. When Michael’s wife had decided he should be buried there, Caroline had done everything she could to convince her otherwise, but  
Amber hadn’t budged. Caroline knew Michael would have hated to be buried there. It didn’t matter, of course not, dead was dead, but shouldn’t they honor the wishes of someone they had both loved?

“Right now? I hate you for doing that to me. Is it really necessary to open old wounds?”

“How can you open a wound that never healed in the first place?”

Caroline didn’t answer. They reached the harbor a few minutes later and if she hadn’t lived here most of her life, she wouldn’t have known the sea was that close. She didn’t mind darkness but she hated fog, the feeling the world was closing in around her. With its humidity it was almost a physical presence whose fragile fingers wanted to drag her down, swallow her.

She looked over at Kathryn, in an attempt to distract herself from her own thoughts.

“I don’t want to do this, Kat. Really, I don’t.”

Caroline was angry at how defeated she sounded, but she couldn’t muster the strength to pretend otherwise.

Kathryn didn’t stop, as if she knew that once she did, this little expedition would be over.

“You don’t want to know the truth?”

“I don’t want to hurt any worse than I do.”

“I can’t promise that you won’t.”

Kathryn wouldn’t lie. She never did.

If she thought she couldn’t say the truth or didn’t want to, she didn’t. She hadn’t told her why she was suddenly gone the night Michael died, had left the house only to come back the next morning, when Caroline’s world was already in shambles. 

Caroline had asked her once, twice, a dozen times where the hell she had been, but Kathryn had said she couldn’t tell her. What had started as a sting, had festered quickly, the trust Caroline had in Kathryn, in their relationship crumbling underneath her feet. It wasn’t that she thought Kathryn had cheated on her, a question Kathryn had denied with vehemence but Caroline knew something had happened, and Kathryn didn’t want her to know.

This night had been the beginning of the end of their relationship.

Kathryn stopped, turned to her.

“I don’t want to hurt you… ever. I've never wanted you to hurt, and I can’t continue with you thinking I just abandoned you that night.”

Sighing once, Kathryn walked on. Sometimes Caroline wondered if the other woman could read her mind.

They rounded the corner, left the harbor behind them. It wasn’t far to the cemetery from here. To Caroline’s surprise, there were only tendrils of fog clinging to the cemetery, as if it were a place even the weather didn’t like to touch.  
The small cemetery held less than a hundred graves, and most of them were old, the stones crooked. In some cases the salty air had done its own to make the inscriptions on older graves unreadable. A few trees had been left, but especially now during autumn, with no leaves left on their branches they only added to gloomy feeling. A few years ago the community had invested in a white fence around the area but it hadn’t been painted once since then, the wooden structure more grey and brown then white by now.

Caroline thought it was peculiar there were still people who wanted to be buried there. To buy one of the precious slots you had to pay thrice the price for a grave you would pay somewhere else. No wonder Amber had insisted Michael had to be buried here. She was all about image, prestige. When Caroline had tried to talk to her, Amber had talked about the view, but Caroline doubted Michael was interested in it.

Some of those tendrils of fog seemed to drift towards them, towards Kathryn more precisely. Caroline almost laughed out, wondered if she was losing her marbles. She blinked, but still, it seemed as if the thick air was drawn by her friend. If Kathryn noticed, she didn’t give any indication.

It wasn’t far to Michael’s grave, but Caroline dreaded every step. She hadn’t been here since the day of his funeral. She couldn’t bear the thought he was dead, the thought he would hate it here.  
There was a rustle of leaves behind her, and she turned around. She didn’t see anyone or anything but her heart had begun beating ever faster in her chest.

Caroline didn’t believe in ghosts or thought Halloween had prompted someone insane to haunt this town tonight. Still, she couldn't help herself, turned her head first right and left, spotting not a single soul. God, this was ridiculous. She was. Although being a bit nervous was a natural reaction to being at a cemetery late at night, wasn’t it?

Kathryn held the small gate open to her. Here, at the cemetery, were the fog had seemed to be cut off, the moon was shining down on them, spending light, yet casting even deeper shadows. 

“It a kind of eerie beauty, don’t you think?” Kathryn said.

“Beauty? I don’t know.”

Caroline didn’t want to talk, ho no mind for idle chatting. She wanted to know what Kathryn thought she had to tell her. Caroline’s stomach churned, and she longed for her living room, a cup of tea, a book to read. For a second she contemplated to just turn and leave.

She didn’t. It would be a coward’s act, and she couldn’t do it to Kathryn. In spite of all that had transpired between them, Caroline knew Kathryn didn’t mean any harm.

Michael’s gravestone was the last in one of the middle rows. It was a small one, grey, dull. Amber hadn’t cared about Michael while he lived, and even less so when he was dead. The logic of buying an expensive slot but letting it all but rot was beyond her.

Caroline contemplated ordering a new gravestone, but Michael wouldn’t have wanted it. 

Kathryn stopped in front of the grave, turning and waiting for Caroline to catch up.

“So what is it you think I really should know?”

Was it her imagination or had the wind picked up a little?

“I want you to know that there is not much I regret more than not being there for you the day your brother died.”

Caroline swallowed, was annoyed about the sudden urge to cry. 

“It’s not as if you had known. And if that’s all… let’s go. Please.”

Kathryn shook her head.

“No, that’s not all.”

What else was there to say and what if the truth hurt even more than not knowing did?

“Let bygones be bygones, Kat.”

Fresh tendrils of fog seemed to gather around Kat, seemed to cling to her skin.

“Do you really think I would have been away if I could have stayed with you? I didn’t have a choice.”

There was always a choice, wasn’t there?

“You’ll have had your reasons, I’m sure.”

Kathryn looked down for a moment, then met Caroline's gaze again.

“I was here, right here when Michael died.”

Caroline frowned. 

“Why? Why would you've gone here.”

Kathryn took a deep breath, burrowed her hands in the pockets of her coat.

“I mourned. I knew Michael was about to die... and I mourned him.”

Kathryn's words didn't make any sense. She couldn't have known. Michael's death had been an accident.

“I don't understand, Kat.”

Kathryn didn't lie, she didn't look like she'd lost her mind either. So...

“Kat, please. What are you trying to do here. And why in the middle of the night. On Halloween. Come on...”

“I'm not who you think, Caro.”

Kathryn's voice sounded defeated and it scared Caroline more than anything else had in a long while. Kathryn was the strong one of the two of them.

“Kat...”

“On Halloween – Samhain - the worlds of the dead and the living are closer than at any other point of the year, did you know that. For us... it's harder to hide who we truly are.”

“Us?”

Caroline was about to scream, if only to break the spell that had befallen them. Nothing Kathryn had done tonight had made sense and it was as if she refused to tell her why she acted the way she did. 

“Kat, I swear if you don't tell me what you're doing here right now I'll be out of here.”

Kathryn finally turned and Caroline couldn't contain a gasp. 

This was Kathryn, and it was not, the image of her flickering so she saw the friend, ex-lover she knew one moment and an old woman with long, flowing white hair the next. She blinked but the image in front of her didn't change.  
Two women seemed to look back at her.

“Kat?”

“You knew I was born in Ireland?” 

Even her voice had changed, sounding brittle one second, strong the next.

“My family... the women in our family have always been different. It's a curse, a blessing, I don't know.”

“Different how?”

Caroline balled her hands into fists, her breath coming ragged. She was afraid, only of what she didn't know.

“We are... mourners of the dead. We're banshees. I knew Michael was about to die and came out here to mourn.”

Their gazes met and for one moment it was simply Kathryn again, an expression of sadness on her face that had Caroline take a step into her direction. She stopped when the image changed, the old woman looking back at her again, a piercing scream escaping her fragile frame. 

Caroline couldn't help herself, sank to the ground, covering her ears to block the noise and yet, the sound was all around her, inside her, speaking of terror and a sadness so profound, it took her breath away.  
She had no idea when it stopped, only woke up from her stupor when she felt Kathrny's arm around.

“I'm sorry, I'm so sorry,” Kathryn said.

Caroline pulled away, relief flooding her at seeing her friend and not the....

“Was that real?”

Kathryn nodded, enfolding her in another embrace.

“It's what I am.”

“But...?”

She trailed off and Kathryn didn't reply. There wasn't an answer to everything in life. The fog had thickened again, seemed to protect from the rest of the world and Caroline was glad.

“Caro, I never stopped loving you but that night I couldn't be with you and I couldn't tell you why.”

Caroline heard a shriek, then laughter in the distance and she met Kathryn's gaze again. 

Whatever trance had befallen her was over for now. She now had answers, only she couldn't believe them. 

She shook her head as one thought chased the other. Had this been real? Had she lost her mind? Did Kathryn still love her. She didn't know, only knew she needed the warmth and the strength she found in Kathryn.

“Let's go home,” she finally said.

Kathryn helped her up from the ground, taking her hand. Slowly they moved away from the cemetery and Caroline felt she could breathe a little easier again.  
Kathryn was right in one thing. She had to bury the past and live her future, however it might look like.

“Will you tell me everything?” she asked, squeezing Kathryn's hand.

“Everything.”

It was a promise and it had to be enough. For now.


End file.
